In the case that a subject person is captured by using a flash lamp, there is the possibility that a red or gold pupil of the subject person would appear in an image; namely, a red-eye effect or gold-eye effect would be caused. Due to this fact, the captured subject person is not a well looking. Accordingly, a method for correcting such red-eye or the gold-eye to an original pupil color has been proposed in diverse ways. A method, has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-76427, such that a necessary area as the correcting object areas including a bloc color defective areas such as red eye areas is designated by user, then all pixels of the red-eye are corrected based on a color value determined by a hue, a color saturation, and a lightness of the necessary area designated by user. Furthermore, a method has been disclosed as, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-145287, such that a photographing information such as stroboscope information, Ev value, shutter speed, and lens diaphragm is added to an optically taken picture, and possibility that a red-eye effect is caused is decided by using the photographing information is performed, then the picture is served to the red-eye effect compensating processing only when there is the possibility the red-eye effect is caused.
Additionally, a method has been disclosed as, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-137788, such that a face candidate area considered to correspond to the face of the human is extracted from an image to be processed, the face candidate area is divided into a specific number of blocks, and then a feature value found for each block are collated with patterns for matching found by dividing the face area actually corresponding the face of the human in order to extract a face candidate area as a face area corresponding to the face of human. Furthermore, a method has been disclosed as, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-137788, such that when a color density of an area corresponding to a face of a human extracted from an image is equivalent to a predetermined threshold value, a body candidate area is extracted from image, then accuracy as a face area (a face candidate area is surely a face image.) is evaluated to each face candidate area by use of a density and a color saturation in the face or the body candidate area in order to extract a face candidate area as a face area corresponding to the face of human. Moreover, a method has been disclosed as, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-137788, such that plural face candidate area estimated to be equivalent to a face of human are extracted from image, and overlap degree is calculated for a pair of face candidate areas which overlap each other, then accuracy as a face area is evaluated based on the overlap degree in order to extract a face candidate area as a face area corresponding to the face of human.